I saw there was an upcoming cache machine and it was going to be in the Grays Harbor area. I haven't been to a cache machine since 2013 mostly because of my transportation, the job I had (I worked my weekends away) and not making very much money. I really wanted to go to more but the timing wasn't available because of Ben's job and then it eventually turned into not having enough extra money to go. We could manage this one. We weren't doing anything and the weather was suppose to be dry.
About a month ago I asked Brenda and Ray if they wanted to do the cache machine and they said they really wanted to and since it was near us so for now their answer was maybe and they would let us know as the date got closer. I was super excited to go cache machine caching again. It has been way too long.
A week before we made plans with Ray. He asked if they could come up on Friday night and have dinner with us (we decided on pizza and salad), stay the night with us (in our open guest room) and head out early Saturday morning towards the coast and Aberdeen with Ben and I. They would leave from the event and head home afterwards.
Two days before I got an email from Ray canceling it because it was suppose to rain all day Saturday. I was disappointed because I was looking forward to it. I told Ben the news and also added that we were going to go anyway but not as early in the morning because I already had some of them and we had some other stuff we had to do before we headed west.
The night before I got out all of the stuff we would need and made a list of caches to grab while we were there. I stuffed everything in my adventure back pack. I grabbed a few containers, bags and logs and also put them in the Escape just in case we had to do maintenance on some of the caches while we were out. I told Ben he had to be ready and have eaten by 10:30 because that's when we were going to leave. He agreed.
The alarm went off around 9ish, we got up, ate cereal, packed up the rest of the stuff we would need for the day, the recycle, the stuff we borrowed for Christmas from mom and dad and was in the Escape by 10:30. We headed into Rainier.
We stopped at the recycle first and dropped off our stuff. We then headed out to my parent's house to drop off the dishes and cookers that we borrowed from them at Christmas time. It was a short visit because we were headed out. I stopped by grandma's house to drop off a couple of things as well before we left town. We left Rainier at about 11:30 and headed towards Aberdeen via Hwy 12. We were going to pick up caches on the way towards Aberdeen. I had a bunch along Hwy 12 between Oakville and Elma I still had to get.
Our first stop was Welcome to Capital Forest (GC56K24). When we pulled off of the road and parked in front of the sign, we knew it was going to be on or near the sign somewhere. I had Ben look for it. We signed our names, put it back and got ready for the next cache.
Mystery History (GCN2C3) was up the road a ways on the left hand side at a large pullout where you could spend some time fishing on the Chehalis River. There was also a large spot where a building once stood. It is now a slab of weathered concrete. We parked the Escape and walked over the gate and near ground zero. This one was also at the sign. I had to go get some pliers to get the log book out. We signed the log and put it back where we found it. On the way back to the Escape, unfortunately I stepped in some dog poop and it took a while to get out of the treads of my shoe. Why can't people pick up after their dog?
We got back onto Hwy 12. A few miles up the road was another pull out this time for the C-Line. There used to be a series that followed the C-Line but at the time I could not do it and then it was archived. However, one did survive. This was placed by a different cacher, C-Line A Nice Drive (GC1620G).
We parked off the side just in case a logging truck came down and wandered around trying to find out what tree crevasse it could be in. The coords had us all over the place. I stopped in the middle of the dirt road and let the GPS take me to the cache. Found out we were in the wrong spot and eventually it took me to the right tree. I was way off. I signed the log and put it back. This container has seen some wet weather over the years.
In Porter, a very small community off of Hwy 12, there was one cache I had not gotten the last time I came through this way...which was probably during the Lamprey Challenge. Fire Me 15 Porter (GC4134R) was indeed at a fire station off the highway. Smokey the Bear indicated there wasn't any fire danger today. We started looking at the sign and all of a sudden we heard a bunch of turkeys cheering us on. We found it very quickly even with the turkeys making noise at us. We signed the log and put it back better than we found it.
We had to skip a cache because we weren't sure how to approach it on the cliff above Hwy 12 so we would have to figure it out next time we came through here. We got closer to Elma and Ben scanned the map to see there was a cache ahead called Don't Even Try It (GC5KK87) and it was a 4.5/1.5. I thought to myself, do we have time to waste on this one? Ben wanted to at least try looking for it, he even exclaimed "challenge accepted!" It took us to a restaurant called the Rusty Tractor and it had some cool decorations on the side of it.
We drove over to the cache location and knew it was going to be on one of the many tractors in this parking lot. I gave us fifteen minutes to look for it. If we didn't find it we would have to move on. We knew we didn't have to squat or bend over to look for it. You really didn't have to climb on it unless you were short like I was. I got up on the step and stood over the top of the engine part and started looking. This one you must touch things to find out what doesn't belong. I started to feel the different parts and as luck would have it, a magnetic screw moved. Ben! I found it! We literally found it in less than two minutes. We signed the tiny log with our initials and put it back exactly how we found it.
A little later on that afternoon I got a phone call from Abby (hydnsek) asking for a few hints on the tractor cache because I guess they were having trouble finding it. I gave them a few hints without totally giving it away. She thanked me and they did end up finding it when I checked the cache page when we got home.
I had Ben find the two letterboxes in town because I had several years ago, EMS (GC2B90K) and Teddy Bear's Christmas (GC2B963).
We drove south of Elma to pick up Old and New (GC2CAX5) which was in between an old bridge that wasn't being used and the new bridge that was currently being used. It took us a while to pinpoint its exact location but we eventually found it after checking every section of guardrail in the middle of the bridge. I was also glad this road wasn't very busy. We signed the log and put it back. Before we left I found a secluded place to pee.
We headed back towards town and stopped at Vance Creek Park to find Anna's Tree (GC4QVKN) which might have been missing but we brought some replacement stuff just in case it was. We parked the Escape in the lot and walked around the small lake to the cache location. We knew it would be in a tree next to the paved trail. When we got there it should have been obvious on where it was hidden. It was missing alright. Ben and I assembled a replacement, signed our names and placed a pathtag inside for the next cacher.
Our next cache, Spirit Quest - Masonic Cemetery (GC5HJW8), was our first DNF for the day. I'm sure it was there but we were led astray or we just were in the wrong area. Our coords didn't yield a very good search area plus we checked all of the stumps like the hint had suggested and could not find anything so we moved on. Meanwhile some weird teenage kids drove in and kinda made it creepy so we moved on. When I got online to log it at home I saw that it indeed was missing so we weren't crazy after all.
Spirit Quest - St. Josephs Catholic Cemetery (GC5HJW5) was just right down the street from the last cemetery. This was a quick park and grab and really didn't need the GPS because it was pretty obvious when we arrived.
We stopped at one more cemetery before moving on to Montesano. Spirit Quest - Satsop Cemetery (GC4XG03) was another park and grab. This time at an obvious stump with mushrooms growing out of it.
We made it into Montesano and stopped at Fleet Park (GC786KZ) and there we found our first set of cache machine cachers. I wasn't sure if we were going to meet up with anyone until the event in Aberdeen. Ben and I got out of the Escape and he exclaimed, "I wonder what they're doing?!" As the group of cachers were trying to sign the log and be sneaky. We asked how they were doing and they said pretty good since the weather held up for a December in Grays Harbor. We signed the cache and handed it off to someone else. Ben and I got back into the Escape and drove a quarter mile up the road for Kelsey Park (GC786M6). We parked the Escape and noticed a little boy and his mom enjoying the playground. We walked up the small hill to the stump and the little boy was curious. We explained to his mom what we were doing and she said that sounded fun. Unfortunately the cache had fallen inside the stump and we couldn't reach it. I got a couple of tools out of the Escape to see if we could fix it. After some persistence we got the container out and added some insurance to make sure it didn't happen again. We let the cache owner know and they were totally cool with it.
I can't tell you how many times I've passed by this sign since I've been geocaching and never found the time to stop. The most iconic landmark besides Kurt Cobain's childhood home would probably have to be the Welcome to Aberdeen sign, "come as you are." Today we had time to grab Come As You Are (GC1ZXAF). We saw in the logs that this one was missing. I felt that we should replace it since there are several cachers in town that need to find this iconic one. I got a container, a bag and a log and we hide it where we thought it went. Ben wrote a message to the cache owner and we drove into Aberdeen to meet up with everyone at the cache machine dinner.
We got to the Mazatlán restaurant and walked across the street to grab one I had already gotten years ago at the fire station. We walked inside the Mexican place and immediately was welcomed by several cachers we knew. Annette, Pete, Chris and Deb were glad to see us. I talked to them for a few minutes and then Bob and Bev moved to a booth so we could sit with them. We talked about various things and told them why we've been so busy the past few months. I think the last time I saw them was at the Edminster family 4th of July celebration at the lake.
Bob and Bev shared their food, I ordered enchiladas and a Pepsi, Ben got a burrito and a margarita. While we waited for our food, TravisL talked about the logbook, which is most of the time a ketchup bottle, and talked about the upcoming cache machines. He thanked everyone for coming to the Grays Harbor Cache Machine II Dinner (GC7EZGR).
Our food came and we enjoyed every bite of it. It was nice visiting with Bob and Bev because it had been far too long. We paid for our food and told everyone bye and that we would see them another time down the caching trail.
I wanted a few more caches on the way home even though it was dark. We picked up
Pacific Harbors (Coastal Waters) Cache to Eagle #3 (GC256PT) on the back side of the Walmart where the Chehalis River dumps into the Pacific Ocean. There was a guy just loitering nearby and I hoped we could find it quickly so we could leave. It was a magnetic key holder hidden under the metal part of the picnic table.
For fun Ben and I went into the Goodwill. I go to check on certain things. I've been looking for a Peru travel book for my upcoming trip to Peru in May 2019. I check for Furbys, certain sports clothes and T-shirts, books and unique things I find that I can gift to someone. Ben got creeped out so we left.
We stopped at the Dept. of Transportation service location to grab DOT Shovel (GC1Y354) which was behind the sign on a shovel. We quickly signed the log and put it back.
Our last geocache for the day was Fire Me 11 Central Park (GC4117Q) which we found this time. The last time we attempted this one we saw it was missing so we didn't stop. That one also was a quick find, sign and return.
On the way back down the highway towards Olympia, near Elma, we ran over a large dead animal and I really hoped that it didn't ruin the tire or the bottom of my car. It happened so fast I was unable to swerve to avoid it. I still have no idea what it was.
We stopped in Lacey to check out some Christmas ornaments at Target and grabbed a few grocery items at the Fred Meyer. We ended up getting home around 8:30. We got cleaned up and then watched a few episodes of our shows, logged caches and relaxed a bit before it was time for bed.
This was Ben's first unorthodox cache machine and I hope we get to do a real one in the upcoming year.
Next Adventure: New Year's Eve with Fireworks
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